Stoic and stone-faced, the four white men stare down from on high. No, not a preview of the upcoming debates featuring the presidential candidates and their running mates. It’s the colossal monument to four great presidents carved into the Black Hills of South Dakota. We only wish we had candidates like them. Amid our quadrennial complaining about the quality of our presidential choices, Mt. Rushmore symbolizes our high expectations. These men are larger than life–way larger. Their faces are 60 feet tall.
Modern presidential candidates do seem to pale in comparison. There they are on the mountain, from left to right: George Washington, Revolutionary War commander and first U.S. president, appropriately in the most prominent position, followed by Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and third president, who nearly doubled the territory of the U.S. through the Louisiana Purchase. Tucked in next is Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president, who broadened presidential power while expanding the U.S. military, building the Panama Canal and gaining popular support as a “trust buster.” At far right is Abraham Lincoln, martyred 16th president, preserver of the union throughout the Civil War and signer of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Big shoes to fill.
The “shrine to democracy” was conceived 80 years ago as a tourist attraction. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum chose the site, on land considered sacred by the Lakota Sioux. With money slow to come from the state, Mt. Rushmore got federal attention, then money from Congress, and finally status as a National Memorial. The tiny mining town of Keystone grasped the coattails of the men on the mountain and evolved into today’s strip of souvenir shops, fudge joints, a presidential wax museum and hotels such as the First Lady Inn and the White House Resort. 1995 saw the opening of nearby Presidents Park, a collection of all 43 presidential heads set in stone by sculptor David Adickes.
It’s all a curious pairing of presidency and patriotism, but also a stirring message of hope.
Before they were granite gods, the four men on the mountain were politicians, with all the baggage that implies. Their greatness was earned over decades, in spite of cracks in their facades–both literal and figurative–that have appeared over 60 years.
Each year, 2 million people visit Mt. Rushmore, a work that may last 10,000 years. And every four years, millions of Americans cast their votes in the thin search for a fellow citizen whose greatness can also withstand the test of time.
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Sculptor Gutzon Borglum began carving Mt. Rushmore in 1927, and the colossal carving was completed in 1941 with the help of 400 workers.
